Duncan will miss upcoming three-game Spurs trip

Spurs forward Tim Duncan will miss the team’s upcoming three-game road trip as he recovers from a sprained ankle sustained in Monday’s game against Golden State.

Spurs general manager R.C. Buford said that Duncan’s injury is between a grade 1 and 2 ankle sprain. He will miss games at potential Western Conference playoff foes Denver on Wednesday, Portland on Friday and Memphis on Sunday.

“He had an MRI this morning that confirmed what the X-rays showed last night. It’s structurally looks good,” Buford said. “We will have a better idea of what the timeline is over the next 48 hours. But he won’t travel on the trip and he’ll be receiving daily treatment here.”

Buford said a prognosis on how much time Duncan could miss could be coming after the swelling on the injury lessens — likely in the next 48 to 72 hours.

“Once we see what the swelling occurs, we’ll have a better idea of the timeline,” Buford said. “That will probably dictate the time back, just how he reacts to treatment and how it swells.”

But with the Spurs holding a seven-game lead with 12 games remaining, they have a cushion to allow Duncan time to recover before the playoffs begin in mid-April.

“I think our history and particularly Pop’s treatment of players is clear. We will always err on the side of caution and what’s in the best interests in the health of the players,” Buford said. “So whether we were going for the No. 1 seed or not, it wouldn’t impact our medical decision.”

Duncan, 34, was using crutches when he left the team’s training center on Tuesday.

Spurs forward-center DeJuan Blair, who missed Monday’s game with a sprained left wrist, has been cleared to make the trip and will likely play against the Nuggets, Buford said.

“It will be up to his tolerance, but I envision … he probably could have played last night,” Buford said.

Duncan’s playing time will be filled by Blair and Tiago Splitter, who notched his first career double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds against the Warriors.

“I’m ready and I want to help the team,” Splitter said. “Of course, I’m not Tim Duncan. I’m a new guy here who wants to help the team, like I say, do the dirty job, play defense and rebound and do my best for the team.”

Blair lost his place in the starting lineup seven games ago when veteran Antonio McDyess was inserted into the rotation. But he’s ready to taken on a larger role while Duncan recuperates.

“We’ve got to come out and play even smarter now and play even harder,” Blair said. “It’s a big hole, of course, with Timmy, but we’re going to have to fill it. We’ve got to. We can’t look back and say, ‘We don’t have this.’ We’ve just got to do with what we’ve got.”

The Spurs have had the most stable starting lineup in the NBA with relatively few injuries. They started the same unit for the first 53 games of the season — longest streak in the league — before Manu Ginobili rested from starting on Feb. 12. Their five starters from opening night have accounted for 338 possible starts out of 350 games so far this season.

“I don’t know you can react to injuries. I think there’s a sense of we’ve been very fortunate with injuries,” Buford said. “Our training staff and our strength staff has done an amazing job with the group this year to bring to this point. Ankle sprains will happen. Every team deals with injuries.”

Duncan sustained the injury with 7:47 left in the first quarter of the Spurs’ victory Monday night. He had earlier missed his first game of the season in the previous game against Charlotte.